Prep Class: Dashi Stock

Dashi stock is to Japanese cooking as master stock is to Chinese cooking as our unique mirepoix of bell peppers, onions, and celery is to Southern cooking.  While the stock is starting to show up in dishes in restaurants all over the country, it is an essential ingredient to so many Japanese dishes that it's honestly quite impossible to do most Japanese recipes without it. The origins of the stock date back as far as the year 790 A.D. However, exactly how to make it became information trapped in the heads of generations of Japanese men and women who passed the what and how down through their own children as oral history. It wasn't until 1907 that a Japanese chemist, Kikunae Ikeda, embarked on a series of experiments to break down what actually went into the dashi stock of his own wife and mother. This discovery led to recipes finally being written down and became the catalyst for the convenience versions.

The goal of dashi stock is to achieve the critical "umami" flavor of Japanese cuisine - the aroma and taste of "meatiness" in a dish without actually using any meat ingredients. This is achieved through increasing the glutamate content of a dish - and dashi stock is very high in glutamates. While there are various dashi powders, starters, etc. that can be found in Asian markets here and are also popular in Japan, it's so ridiculously easy to make your own dashi stock that I recommend skipping the convenience versions.

Thankfully, the core ingredients for dashi stock have become more readily available in the US due to the rising popularity of Japanese and Japanese-influenced cuisine. The stock at its core contains only three ingredients - dried kelp (konbu), bonito flakes (dried fish skin), and filtered water. Some versions also add enoki, maitake, or shiitake mushrooms to further increase the umami element.

My next post will give you my version of dashi stock. I will then follow up with my versions of two popular Japanese recipes that require the stock.